Improving habitats is an important goal of the Virginia CZM Program.  The program has invested significant resources over its 35-year history on land and water-based habitat restoration and protection, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and increasing valuable native vegetative cover.

Plants that have evolved over thousands of years, before European settlement, are considered native and need less fertilizer and pesticides than plants from other ecosystems.  More native vegetation helps protect water quality and quantity, supports more wildlife, increases absorption of carbon dioxide and beautifies the landscape. 

Regional Native Plant Marketing Campaigns: Expand Beyond Coastal Zone and Across Virginia 

In spring 2009, the Virginia CZM Program and its partners launched the Plant ES Natives campaign using proven Community-based Social Marketing tools and techniques with a focus on making planting natives easy and popular.

The campaign became a model for development of five regional campaigns initiated and funded by the Virginia CZM Program in the Virginia's coastal zone.

Virginia CZM Program staff and staff from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources then partnered to conduct workshops and build the capacity of regional and local partners to apply the regional native plant marketing model beyond Virginia’s coastal zone.  As a result, three campaigns have been launched in Virginia's Piedmont and Mountain regions. 

Current Regional Native Plant Marketing Campaigns in Virginia

• Plant ES (Eastern Shore) Natives
• Plant NOVA (Northern Virginia) Natives
• Plant NNK (Northern Neck) Natives
• Plant Central Rapp Natives
• Plant RVA (Capital region) Natives
• Plant HR (Hampton Roads) Natives
• Plant Middle Peninsula Natives (in development)
• Plant Southwest Virginia Natives
• Plant Southern Piedmont Natives
• Plant Northern Piedmont Natives
• Plant Ridge and Valley Natives (in development)

Components of the Plant ES Natives Campaign strategy, such as a regional plant guide, have been easily transferrable to address barriers common in all the regions to planting natives. Each region however is unique and the planning teams are continuously evaluating which place-based approaches are most effective in reaching their gardening population.

Visit www.PlantVirginiaNatives.org to learn more about these regional native plant marketing campaigns, and to download all regional native plant guides. 

The growing state-wide initiative includes the following goals:

1. Increase the knowledge and use of plants native to the region, according to the Flora of Virginia.
2. Help landowners learn more about their property and the benefits of a native plant landscape and conservation landscaping, and how by planting natives they can impact the ecological diversity and sustainability of natural landscapes beyond their property, neighborhood, and community.
3. Engage with local garden centers in the region to promote the native plants they currently carry and to increase the supply and variety of the native plants they carry.
4. Engage with local jurisdictions on policies that could be strengthened in favor of native plant landscaping.

In August 2011, the Virginia CZM Program established a state-wide focused partnership to Identify and prioritize opportunities to collaborate on Virginia native plant communication and marketing efforts and form cohesive and coordinated messaging and strategies to increase local availability and use of native plants state-wide.

A Steering Team drafted an Action Plan focused on strategies and actions to address four goals:

1. Increase collaboration and coordination among partners engaged in native pant education, communication and marketing;
2. Increase Virginia Grown native plant stock (percentage goal to be determined);
3. Increase the availability of native plants at local plant retailers (percentage goal to be determined); and,
4. Increase demand and use of Virginia native plants by landscape and land use professions, homeowners, landscaping and demonstration restoration projects on public and private lands.

The Plant Virginia Native Initiative leverages partner resources, creates consistent messaging and provides a rallying point for partners.  For example, in 2019-2020, the Virginia Native Plant Society fundraised over $30,000 to help produce new regional native plant guides and to help fund reprints of existing guides.

Together with these partners, Virginia CZM has been helping grow public demand for, and a social norm in favor of, native plants.  In 2009, prior to the Plant ES Natives campaign, the program heard natives still described as scraggly and weedy. Twelve years later in 2021, with campaigns spreading state-wide, that perception is fading away garden by garden.